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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

The Drowning

E. J. Pratt

  The rust of hours,
  Through a year of days,
Has dulled the edge of the pain;
  But at night
  A wheel in my sleep
Grinds it smooth and keen.

  By day I remember
  A face that was lit
With the softness of human pattern;
  But at night
  It is changed in my sleep
To a bygone carved in chalk.

  A cottage inland
  Through a year of days
Has latched its doors on the sea;
  But at night
  I return in my sleep
To the cold, green lure of the waters.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Newfoundland Verse | 1923
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